What is Product Backlog Refinement?

Throughout the development cycle, Product Backlog Refinement is a crucial Scrum technique event that happens frequently. A more precisely defined and workable backlog results from the team's discussion of each item, clarification of its requirements, and evaluation of its priority and complexity throughout refinement. 

The team can guarantee that the development process stays flexible and adaptable to evolving requirements and priorities by consistently streamlining the backlog. Through our blog, let's go further into backlog refinement, product backlog meeting goals, and more. 

What Is Backlog Refinement?

Maintaining an updated, tidy, and organized backlog is known as "product backlog refining" or "product backlog grooming." 

Scrum calls this a fundamental process. Confirming whether the backlog is prepared for the next sprint begins the collaborative PBR discussion process, which starts at each sprint's conclusion. 

A backlog is a collection of user stories that define the scope and context of the project but are not included in the current sprint. Unattended tales might cause problems for the development team's ability to work together. The team may become distracted, making it difficult to determine the user stories' current state, and maybe miss the project deadline. 

The Objective Of The PBR Meeting

Removing the out-of-date user story is the primary goal of the PBR session. It also seeks to produce fresh narratives based on the project's progress. to assign estimates, reevaluate the relative priorities, and make any corrections to the forecast. Since backlogs are maintained with the aid of the PBR, it saves the SPM time. Each team member has confirmed that the acceptance criteria are accurately stated. Divide the user stories into smaller segments so that you can prioritize each one internally.

How To Run An Efficient Backlog Refinement Meeting

Practical backlog refinement sessions are the first step in agile project management. The actions that follow will assist you in developing a seamless and recurring procedure that brings together the appropriate parties, establishes expectations, ranks and assesses the items, and specifies the subsequent actions.

1. Examine And Prioritize The Backlogged Items 

The product owner must assess the current product backlog items (such as user stories, features, or tasks) and eliminate irrelevant ones before the backlog refinement meeting can begin. Certain elements will no longer fit the project vision as a product develops and feature needs shift. Along with implementing suggestions from prior sprint reviews, the product owner should make sure that any items the team decides to delete are made apparent. 

The product owner should prioritize all items still in the backlog, considering that this order may change as the team discusses each item at the meeting.

2. Make The Agenda For The Meeting And Share It

An agenda is necessary for this kind of meeting and any other in project management to ensure that conversations stay on topic. Product owners can work with appropriate team members to set the agenda for the backlog refinement meeting, enabling them to provide early feedback and time estimates on the items and prepare for the upcoming subjects.

The agenda's primary goal is to maintain team attention on the chosen backlog items and ensure that the refinement tasks are finished within the allotted meeting time. 

3. Follow The 15/5 Discussion Rule

The "spread it out" recommendation now applies to each product backlog item. Only devote up to fifteen minutes of the refinement session to any issue. You can timebox the process of refining a single item and revisit it during a later session. Put something on the shelf and return for another meeting to double-check, even if you believe you've "done" refining it.

On the other hand, try to limit the duration of an ineffective talk to at most five minutes. It's a solid indication that the product owner needs to work offline more if you're still firmly in the "I don't understand" stage five minutes after giving a new idea. 

4. Choose The Ideal Time For The Meeting

The length of the sprints and the project's complexity will determine the ideal time to meet. The project manager should hold a weekly backlog refinement session if the team performs weekly sprints. If sprints last two weeks, the project manager should schedule a meeting every other week. To help the team prepare for shifting priorities or unforeseen challenges, bi-weekly sessions are still recommended if the sprints are longer than two weeks. 

Irrespective of the team's decision, schedule all of the backlog in one hour's worth of meetings. Make sure the meeting facilitator strictly limits the amount of time that can be squandered and that the product manager puts the meetings on the calendar.

5. Assess The User's Narrative

An Agile team must agree on the user story to assess an item's complexity. The purpose of user stories is to provide the user with informal descriptions of what the product accomplishes.

Existing user stories should be examined during the backlog refinement meeting to see if they are still relevant to the project. It's also the ideal moment to break up more extensive user stories into smaller ones or create new ones based on recently acquired information. Because it enables the team to find opportunities for incremental product enhancement, this ongoing refinement of the user stories is a crucial component of the Agile process. 

Benefits of PBR Sessions

• Backlog Optimization

These meetings streamline the procedure and clear it of clutter. They ensure no extra items are in the product backlog and maintain it compact and focused.

• A Common Comprehension

The team and stakeholders clearly understand what the task entails and which items should be prioritized since these meetings force the team to consider everything in detail.

• Effective Sprint Planning 

Sprint planning sessions are made more efficient by allowing attendees to voice concerns and provide comments. Sprint planning also becomes more straightforward and faster due to the common understanding of the project.

• Enhanced Cooperation

Team members come from different backgrounds and have different opinions about what should go first and how long tasks should take. Members can voice their opinions during the refinement meeting, which helps everyone agree on the priorities and due dates.

• A United Team

Participating in refinement meetings allows team members to assume ownership of the sprint and, in turn, the project and the work needed to finish it. An empowered team that takes responsibility for the results of each sprint is the result.

Who Attends A Backlog Refinement Meeting? 

1. Owner Of The Product 

Establishing a product's scope and ensuring it's prepared for development falls within the purview of the product owner. They attend Backlog Refinement sessions to ensure that the work added to the backlog will aid in the product's success. 

2. Scrum Team

In a refinement meeting, the scrum team is in charge of developing a product backlog.  Throughout this phase, the development team is responsible for several tasks. They are in charge of estimating the time needed to implement each feature, ranking those estimates according to urgency and importance.  

3. Project Provider 

The project sponsor is ultimately responsible for the project's triumph and preserving a favorable rapport with all parties involved. While grooming the product backlog, the project sponsor sets priorities, recognizes risks and difficulties, and keeps stakeholders informed. 

4. Scrum Master

Ensuring the team can work effectively is the responsibility of the Scrum Master. To help the team accomplish its objectives, they must remove roadblocks. The Scrum Master leads the discussion and ensures everyone stays on the topic during an Agile approach to product backlog grooming.

5. Manager of Products

The product manager's duties are creating a product backlog and its maintenance throughout a software product's life cycle. Choosing the features and functionalities included in the final release helps the product manager establish the product backlog.

Ideal Time For Backlog Refinement 

Weekly backlog grooming meetings should be considered if your team operates in one-week sprints. Use different types of standup sessions in between these meetings if you are on a two-week cycle. 

Getting the team to deliver valuable product increments is the primary goal of these discussions. The work completed during this meeting should be time-boxed and scheduled to prevent backlogs. 

After every sprint or iteration, there should be a backlog refinement scrum meeting. To handle concerns early on and prevent them from becoming greater later on, a backlog grooming meeting should be held at least twice a month! 

Become A Certified Product Manager And Enhance The Backlog Refinement

Siimpliaxis'sSAFe® 6.0 Product Owner/Product Manager Certification Training makes it easy to investigate Product Backlog Refinement. Learn the fundamentals of agile product development. Immerse yourself, comprehend it, and raise your game without effort.

The Bottom Line

A well-scrutinized and adaptable backlog is derived from product Backlog Refinement, making it a vital part of Scrum. PBR helps team members to deeply study the objectives, design effective meeting strategies, and understand the project comprehensively. PBR sessions result in streamlined progress, effective sprint planning, better collaboration, and a goal-oriented team. For a deeper understanding of agile product development, become a certified product manager with Simpliaxi’s SAFe® 6.0 training.